Wednesday, November 25, 2009

I'm in a tropical or sub-tropical climate. My surroundings remind me very much of Miami Beach, city-side.It’s definitely a weekend night because there are people out and in their cars looking like they are going someplace with intentions.

Next thing I know I’m approaching the condo that I was heading towards which faces the beach and has several stories.The city-side lights and noise are drowned out by the building and the only source that guides me through the darkness is the full Moon’s blast of redirected sunlight.As I got closer to the specific apartment I noticed two individuals dressed all in black with masks and bags full of tools looking like they don’t belong.I quickly stepped back and leaned against the corner wall to analyze the situation.I noticed they were thieves, burglars, and possibly even ninjas and understood that I was the person that had to do something about it if good could overcome evil in anyway.This was a massive dose of responsibility I just convinced myself of and sure enough as they began to climb the wall to enter through what appeared to be a second floor bedroom window, I surreptitiously approached.

After I crossed the line of being-10-ft-close, I sprinted hard towards the dude closest to me, pulled him off the wall and body slammed him towards floor where he also connected with the concrete balcony – he was instantly unconscious due to the blow to his head and lungs. The second jumped down from the second floor and crash landed on top of me.Since he had so much weight with the tools and gear for their robbery he was clumsy and made his offense with his gloved hands.We both fell to the ground and I used his momentum to turn him on his back against the floor with my knees against his shoulders providing only a 10% chance of escape.It was either him or I so I made sure to land a few knuckle sandwiches and keep the goon at bay.I got up and noticed both dudes were sluggish, hurt, and only coming back to consciousness.

The next thing I did implicates me as the bad guy but I rationalized it as further punishment for the ninja goons.I took both their wallets and ran.I ran through the boulevard where people began to amass and I reentered the lights and noise that make the night alive. I crossed an intersection and almost got hit by what looked like an x-girlfriend in a red Yugo of a car (reminded me of the Bourne series). All I could think about was the notion that the ninja goons would be getting up soon and looking for me, chasing after me, and that my hands had blood on them.Real, red, krovvy on my hands and clothes.It now became a matter of the police as well as the goons so I fled towards the darkness again and the closest area seemed to be the port so I made my way and found a spot in the shadows where I could use my undershirt to wipe off the blood and then took the undershirt with me by folding it and putting it in my pocket. I was suddenly a twisted mercenary of justice, but why did I take their wallets? Not very heroic or Batman-ny. If I were to become a super hero, that would be the first and only time I would do that as a lesson to myself.

There was a boat about 50 yards away that was about to leave the port.It was about 300ft long and seemed to be a small cruise ship.It looked modern, new, powerful, high-tech, and expensive.I decided to go on and saw most of the passengers sitting on the upper-deck waiting for the captain’s announcement.They all anticipated a great journey.The captain began to mention with excitement that they were the first crew and passengers to embark on a trip of this kind.He reported the ship being the fastest and most fuel efficient in its size and will be the first to travel around the world stopping at every continent and unveiling some of the more beautiful and desolate parts of the wet world where civilization hasn’t yet sprawled.

The boat left the port and I was on it.I was stuck.If I showed myself the crew would call the police and I would surely get into trouble.I could see the city disappearing and I began to think of my family, my job, my loved ones, the unswimmable distance getting larger.I began to think that my life would now change.I would be considered lost.I would have to hide amongst the crew and passengers.Food and shelter would be difficult to find.

The reality in this dream was a parallel universe to our own. It reminded me of LOST, but different. The geography was different.A mere half hour outside of the port of what appeared to be Miami the captain announced that Mt. Lauderdale would be coming up to our left.Beside it on the bay I saw a beautiful arrangement of ships aligned to make a star in the water.The ships towards the inside vertices of the star had the largest masts and they had flags and festive lighting.The lighting was so powerful that you could see a pale blue of the water around them and small jet ski’s and fishing boats cruising around them.

The boat made a U-turn and headed into the deep darkness of the great ocean ahead of us.I understood a new adventure approaching, a life change.

Then I woke up and sent a tweet about this and decided I should get up and tell the story with as much detail as possible.This was it.Now breakfast.I’m off today.Won’t be back at the office till Monday – Cyber Monday.

Monday, November 23, 2009

The weekend was good because there was lots of bike riding for Charity, fun, and the sake of getting dirty on both days. Actually there was no time to do chores so today I took it upon myself to get on my laundry and clean.

Laundry Mondays are weird. The music progression has been all about The Pixies and PJ Harvey, and the result is definitely obscure. Getting home from work I noticed traffic had amplified about 3x from the usual and couldn't help deciding that it must be the holiday frenzy that has everyone losing their fuzzy warbles.

Thanks to MeMelodia I discovered this pretty sweet site - Visual Technicians - that sells various kick ass screen prints. My favorite are Bill Murray, The Gun Show, Mad Max, The Beastie Boys, and Jason Lee. Most of these are sold out. I think it'd be a great venture to collect every Bill Murray film, all the Mad Maxs, and compile the best film scenes with The Beastie Boys sampled. (Mad Max isn't sold out. wink ;)) That'd be quite the project anyhow. Just under these words is an example of Castle Greyskull which was way ahead of its time and is coming soon to the print making shop.

I actually owned the toy model but have no inkling of a fraction of a thought or idea of how it was disposed of or what its destiny became.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

I found these drawing by Mel Kadel and I thought they were really cool. Visit her site to see more. Read an interview with her on Fecal Face for more. Checkout the Google images produced when searching by her name.

7 years ago today I visited Cuba with my parents. It was my first, and only, time there since I was 8 months old. I took 394 pictures and, I can't believe it, nearly 90% of those photos were shot in 640 x 480. Here is one example.I mean really? This is just one example. Could the digital cameras of 2002 been that low res? Maybe I was just trying to save disk space. Either way, its a shame. The photos aren't that great anyway. This one's is a shot of Ernest Hemingway's hunting closet. Yes, I was there. The house is very impressive and filled with his hunting trophies, relics from expeditions, and his art collections. Naturally, there is more to capture than what you see below but this blog is like a tiny window into a bigger story.

Cuban's used to call Hemingway "Papa" and they claimed him as his own during his time there. Coincidentally my father whom I also call Papa, took a flight 2 hours ago down to Cuba and is visiting my grandmother - his mother. She is now 94 years old.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

...at around 6am for no reason at all, grabbed my phone and started to play this song off its speaker. What I did next was to play back the last 3 months in fast-rewind in my mind pausing every now and then allowing the playback to go slowly every so often. This song keeps coming up in my thoughts weekly.

It'd be cool to start a coffee book just on window shots from airplanes. Maybe I'd title it "Just Like Honey." Cheese?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

So there's this Guatemalan girl who drives me a little crazy. Not romantically, we're just friends. Sometimes we annoy each other and she even calls me out on shit publicly, to set me straight, when she finds the need to. It's really like she's an adopted sister or a sister from another mother. You can follow her on Twitter @ctothethird if you want. Her updates are a'ight.

Anyhow she's been nagging me for what seems like decades for some tips and pointers on how-to enjoy Wilco and what some of my favorites are. I got fed up, I compiled this playlist and repackaged it in a zip file with the filenames changed to describe the order of the songs in the playlist, or how they should be played.

For those of you who are Wilco fans and are curious of what this selection is comprised of, check it out here:

At Least That's What You Said

Hummingbird

Company In My Back

I am Trying to Break Your Heart

Jesus, Etc.

I'm the Man Who Loves You

Either Way

Impossible Germany

A Shot in the Arm

We're Just Friends

California Stars

At my Window Sad and Lonely

One by One

These songs have traveled with me around the world and will probably remain in constant orbit of my universe. I would also travel for these songs. They own a piece of me. This is my own Wilco's Greatest Hits playlist.

Checkout the poster section of the online Wilco Store. Some of the serigraphs kick ass.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The main source of this video @NME isn't streaming very well here so I found this recording of a recording on Vimeo. I like the bikes, the forest, the booty, and the tune. Pretty radical of Wayne Cone, the main dude, baring all towards the end. This is part of the Flaming Lips' latest album, Embryonic, and is track #18 so you can effectively say that its their absolute latest piece of mass produced music.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Who doesn't like what happens when black and white are close to each other? Who doesn't like Sharpies? Depending on how you answered those questions you may want to consider your stay here. Anyway some of this work I really enjoy but some of it I feel is also a guilty pleasure. I think some of it borders cheesy but for the most part its more than grated dopeness. What I've posted here I appreciate. Mike Giant has an online store too, buy a shirt or buy me a book.

I agree with omitting the spokes.

This one is part of the White Walls Gallery show in San Francisco. It's called "Salvatrucha." Checkout all the pieces from that show here.

I got on a Devo exploration tip after seeing that video from the previous post with the Wes Anderson faux-trailer. When I saw the video I started thinking about when I was a kid and in after school care playing Nok Hockey and it reminded me of the smell of freshly cut wood. This video rules because the music is like the sum of two waves, one with a well-defined period and then a very dissonant wave, riding on top. (If you can't visualize that just ask me sometime in real life if you know me and I will happily explain.) Props to these guys for doing it their way.

This next one just reminds of me elegance and the beauty of a cleanly executed proof. It also reminded me of Complex Variables where I got a C+ after working my ass off. It was one of the coolest classes I ever took. I got to bring in left-field examples from other classes such as the Wronskian function.

In the spirit of proper blog ejaculate on the internet backbone where we all connect, collaborate, and calculate, I’ve regurgitated a consecrate post.It’s been many months since I’ve blo-argh-gged.Nonetheless, I’m in a different dimension and the plow of life, thankfully, has provided a sturdy transmission.

That means its been a hard year but collapsaform will help defibrillate creativity outside of all the routine cycles. What's absent in my current existence is an outlet for words (new blog?), a hands-on hobby/craft, a muse, superhero powers, a cave I can call my own, and large sets of academic and complex mathematics. Sometimes a few good math problems do generate happiness and clarity (I'm serious). There is always a way.

More than just a stack of words, I've brought some goodies:

Some music: The latest Flaming Lips record, which I happen to appreciate - Embryonic. Available here for your downloading pleasure via Rapidshare. Go buy it if you really like it.

Some vids: This guy Alex apparently really likes Wes Anderson - and so do I. This project/video seems like it must've been a lot of fun to make. Here is his site. The video below shows what would've been a trailer for a mock-Wes Anderson film festival.

Hotness: A cool photograph featuring Sasha Grey. (above) Gratuitous? Perhaps, and not very "in-line" with my standard posts but I wouldn't be honest if I said I didn't want to share it online. it's also part of an experiment.

Writing a post on an a blog that is clearly undefined is like being handcuffed to a toboggan on a clear day with no brakes or means of escape - live or die the journey will happen and the post will go live. Only after its been done will I know if it was the right thing to do. I need to take in any feedback, rewards and consequences and then learn.

Anyway I think its important to document what music I've been listening to these past few days, iTunes says my recently and most played are (in no order): Charles Mingus, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue, Clinic, Clint Mansell (MOON soundtrack), Weezer, and Russian Circles.